Confused About Recent Weight Gain

CMNVA
CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
edited September 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
So this one has me stumped and I'm sure there must be a reasonable explanation for it.

Over the summer, I was weighing more than I would have liked. I'm 5'7" and I was back up to about 151 lbs. Clothes were getting tight again and I knew it was time to start moderating my intake better (again). But, I had a vacation to Disney World planned in late July. Lots of eating planned and I didn't want to be restricting myself on vacation, so I decided to just wait until it was all over. The day I left for Disney I was about 151 lbs. When I returned, I weighed 155lbs. no big deal, right? Probably just water weight, etc. I figured that when I returned to my normal eating patterns (and that was probably too much), those pesky 4 lbs would go away and I'd be back to my 151.

Well, it's now October and they have not budged. I am certainly NOT eating the amount of food that I was eating at Disney. When I returned, I was eating about 2200 calories per day (too much for me but that's where I've been for the last 6 months which GOT me to the 151 lbs) and then in the past 3 weeks, I've dropped down to 1700. I am still at 155 pounds.

So did I gain an extra 4 lbs on the trip and now, eating in maintenance, I'm going to stay there, when eating in maintenance used to maintain me at 148 lbs?

I'm sure I'm missing some wonderful math calculation here!!

Replies

  • CMNVA
    CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
    edited September 2018
    Samaahir wrote: »
    Did you calculate the calorie deficit you need in order to lose 4 lb and over how much time? That might be a better approach than eating at your old maintenance.

    If the difference in maintenance calories between 155 and 151 lb is very small, it is going to take you a long time to lose the weight eating the maintenance for the 151,and also if it's small, it'll be sensitive to small errors in estimation of calories taken in or calories burned.

    No, I didn't. I just probably stupidly assumed that when I got back from vacation, when I stepped back into normal eating that the "vacation" gain would come off. I didn't think it would stay with me permanently. It's awful. I've never had this happen. Always would come back and have that sort of gain gone in 2-3 weeks. Honestly, I'm still having a hard time accepting that I actually put on 4 lbs in 7 days. I guess I can thank my age for that. Even the legs in my underwear are digging into me.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    How often are you weighing yourself?

    You say last 3 weeks you're averaging 1700, if you are accurate about that intake, using a food scale then give it more time to get results. There are lots of things that now could be masking any loss.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Ps I gained 4lbs on my last two week cruise in July. I didn't start working properly on trying to shift that gain until about 3 weeks ago. I'm now down to 1lb left to shift. Tighten your logging, stick with it and you'll get back to where you were.

    All the best.
  • CMNVA
    CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
    LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »
    How often are you weighing yourself?

    You say last 3 weeks you're averaging 1700, if you are accurate about that intake, using a food scale then give it more time to get results. There are lots of things that now could be masking any loss.

    I have standard things I eat all the time that I've reverted back to. Weekdays it's 45-50 grams of shredded wheat for breakfast (weighed), generally a frozen meal for lunch, yogurt, and weighed out popcorn. Standard stuff for dinner also. I've reverted back to weighing them also (though I haven't been recording). Ditched the sugar in my tea also.

    As for weighing myself, probably weighing every 2-3 days, in the morning, naked, right before I hit the shower.
  • Samaahir
    Samaahir Posts: 18 Member
    edited September 2018
    Oh and btw thinking about it (thinking in terms of lbs instead of kgs lol) it's actually the exact same story here. I gained 4 lb in May after a short vacation in London and I only started to work on losing the weight a week ago. Before that I was simply eating at my previous maintenance and I of course didn't lose the weight. My maintenance was maintaining my weight for me for a year and half but it was loose and based on estimation as I'd stopped calculating my calories shortly after starting to maintain. What I think happened is that instead of netting the maintenance for my old weight I was now actually netting the maintenance for my new weight. The difference between the two is only 24 calories per day!! But to actively loose the weight at a rate of 0.5 kg (approx 1 lb) per week, I now (naturally) have to net a deficit of 500 calories per day.

    Can you see the huge difference?
    Even if I accurately hit the deficit of 24 Cal per day, it will still take me forever to lose the weight.
  • CMNVA
    CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
    Seffell wrote: »
    CMNVA wrote: »

    So did I gain an extra 4 lbs on the trip and now, eating in maintenance, I'm going to stay there, when eating in maintenance used to maintain me at 148 lbs?

    I'm sure I'm missing some wonderful math calculation here!!

    Yes, that's what is likely happening. You're just maintaining at 155. Mind you the maintanance calories are the same for 155lbs and 148lbs everything else kept constant. Well almost the same. Like 10 calories more probably.

    Darn.
  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
    CMNVA wrote: »
    I've reverted back to weighing them also (though I haven't been recording).



    This is what I do when I don't really want to do the work of losing weight. I don't record. Funny what you can miss that way.

    Perhaps you're better than I am about remembering everything you eat. In any event, if you're not losing weight, one thing is for sure: you're eating too much. Recorded or not.
  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,794 Member
    Following because I'm in the same boat... :s
  • CMNVA
    CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
    countcurt wrote: »
    CMNVA wrote: »
    I've reverted back to weighing them also (though I haven't been recording).



    This is what I do when I don't really want to do the work of losing weight. I don't record. Funny what you can miss that way.

    Perhaps you're better than I am about remembering everything you eat. In any event, if you're not losing weight, one thing is for sure: you're eating too much. Recorded or not.

    I agree, I'm eating too much. I'm pretty good about remember what I eat because it's not varied and it's the same sort of thing day in and day out. My portions are much smaller than they were and are being measured/weighed out, but I am admittedly eating at maintenance (around 1600-1700) and mistakenly thinking it would get rid of the Disney gorging-myself weight. It isn't.

    I'm still quite stunned that I could go from being a total couch potato, eating about 2000-2200 per day, going to Disney and being on my feet for 8-10 miles per day (tracked), and actually PUT ON 4 pounds. That equates to about 14,000 extra calories THAT WEEK over my normal. I just don't feel like I did that. I ate my breakfast in my room every day (bowl of shredded wheat). Lunch and dinner were somewhat of a free-for-all in that I ate out counter service for lunch, table service for dinner (no appetizers, but dessert everyday, no alcohol).
  • katphi1618
    katphi1618 Posts: 120 Member
    It could be just water retention. I read somewhere that you can gain like 5lbs in just water by changing how much sodium/sugar your eating, being more physically active (initially), etc. If you didn't go over in calories that much I would just wait it out and let your body regulate.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,743 Member
    Eating out adds a lot more calories than you think. To make the food taste good, restaurants add a lot of fat and sugar. If you were eating out 2 meals a day, you probably had an extra 2000+ calories. It adds up.

    After my vacation I went back to a 250 calorie deficit. I had gained 6 pounds (over 2 1/2 months). Within a week I was down 2, thanks to dropping some water weight. At this point, I'm down 2 more, though it varies day by day. I am back to eating at maintenance, more or less but I do track because I'd like to be back to the low end of my maintenance range rather than the high end.
  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
    Okay. If two months has passed between when you returned from your vacation and when you posted, this ain't water weight.


    You shouldn't assume a direct relationship between caloric intake and weight. So if you packed in an extra 3500 calories today, you might or might not see the one pound on the scale tomorrow. (who among us hasn't stepped on the scale after a few days or week of not so great decision making only to be surprised by a small loss or no gain? Then coming back the following week, after doing everything perfectly, with a big gain?). This is one of the great mysteries of weight management.


    Sometimes we don't want to acknowledge what we know, deep down, to be true.
  • CMNVA
    CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
    Thanks everyone, for the insight.

    After thinking through what you've said, I do believe that eating in "maintenance" (which feels pretty restrictive to me after several months of free eating) is keeping me from going back down to my pre-vacation weight (which was still too much).

    I guess the great mystery now is how I managed to gain 4 solid pounds in 7 days. Never did that before, but I'm guessing my age and lower muscle mass due to age and inactivity is making that happen.

    Compare that with my Disney trip of 2012 (pre-menopause, still in my 40s) and at an ideal weight. I went to Disney also for the same length of time, ate pretty much whatever I wanted also, I was a bit more active (for instance, I walked really fast from one end of the park to the other getting fast passes while some of family were on the rides--this trip I didn't have to because it's all computerized on an app). But basically it was the same trip. On THAT trip, I lost weight due to the increased activity levels for me. Very perplexing!

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